


There are No Drinking Laws for Dragons

by jelazakazone



Series: merlin advent 2011 [8]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-09
Updated: 2011-12-09
Packaged: 2017-10-27 05:49:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/292311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jelazakazone/pseuds/jelazakazone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone wins, even The Nutcracker</p>
            </blockquote>





	There are No Drinking Laws for Dragons

**Author's Note:**

> kleinefee92 suggested The Green Dragon Song and had George dragonsitting for Aithusa in her fic and I’ve borrowed that clever idea. The title is princealia’s idea, as are the body shots and the dancing girls who morphed into maidens. And Gwaine, although that probably would have happened naturally. And if someone wants to write a sexy prequel or coda to this story, I would LOVE it. Mega thanks to betas kleinefee92 who suggested The Green Dragon song and lewisian_gneiss . Written for Day 9 of merlinadvent

Sated, Merlin rolled onto his side and slid his hand across Arthur’s chest to rest his arm across the other man’s torso. Merlin sighed, “I’m feeling a little bad that we just plunked Aithusa off with George so we could divert ourselves,” but then he snuggled in to the warm body next to him, nuzzling his nose in Arthur’s neck. Arthur propped himself up on his elbows, causing Merlin to slide down onto the bed, and said, “Are you worried about how Aithusa’s doing after his saucer of spiked ale? Oi, I’ll bet you didn’t know about the pre-Yule tavern dragon drinking tradition. Hm, I’d nearly forgotten about it myself. Let’s go ask Gaius what he knows about this ancient tradition. He’s probably got a dusty old book full of games for us to plunder.”

The men sat up and pulled trousers up, slipped feet into boots and shrugged tunics over their heads. Properly attired once more, they headed out to find Gaius. A brisk walk entirely enclosed by castle corridors, and thus unhampered by snow, brought them to Gaius in just a few minutes. Excited, they burst in on Gaius who was dozing in his chair after the heavy holiday luncheon. Not having had the benefit of a brisk walk, he was a little disoriented as the men started talking over each other, asking him about drinking games for dragons and where the information might be found.

Gaius arched an eyebrow and then closed his eyes, brought his fingertips together at his lips and then said, “Yes. Yes! I do have the information you seek.” He began to rummage in a pile on his work table and after a few minutes produced a scroll that showed[ a dragon with a flagon](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LS75NtlH3gI).  “Here is the information you require sire. Can I be of further service?”

“No, thank you Gaius. This will do quite nicely,” said Arthur formally and they took their leave to go find Aithusa.

Tracking down Aithusa proved more difficult than they had anticipated. When they arrived at George’s quarters, neither he nor the small white dragon were in evidence. In fact, there was no sign the dragon had even visited George and Merlin looked a little anxious. He was about to say something to Arthur but was interrupted by loud footsteps in the corridor which preceded George and Aithusa. Merlin slumped against the wall with relief, not even minding the cold stone that bit into his shoulder. The king smiled at the future of dragonkind and said, “Have you been causing more trouble young pup?” Aithusa just smiled and flapped his wings.

George smoothly explained, “I took the young dragon outside for a daily constitutional. He seemed a little down and in need of the fresh air.”

“Quite right, George,” said Arthur. “Thank you for looking out for the well being of a valued inhabitant of Camelot.” Merlin, in the meantime, had gestured to Aithusa to resume his seat on Merlin’s shoulder and was now happy to have the little beast reinstated thereupon.

The trio went back to Arthur’s quarters to examine the scroll. Merlin paced while Arthur sat, listening to the choices he read aloud. There were drinking games involving flaming shots, gold coins, body shots, or maidens. “Well,” Arthur said, “the fire shots are out and I don’t see how any of us would survive body shots with a dragon, so that leaves the gold coins and the maidens. You round up some maidens and call for Kilgharrah, I’ll go and get some gold and then we can meet up at the tavern in an hour.”

An hour later, Arthur met up with Merlin, Aithusa, Kilgharrah, some maidens, and Gwaine. “Nice of you to join us Gwaine,” he enthused. “Let’s revive this old tradition and see if we can raise some spirits.”

They all entered the tavern, save for Kilgharrah, who could only fit his head in. They discovered that the back of the tavern opened directly to the stables though and this afforded Kilgharrah a vantage point, even if he couldn’t fully participate. The Great Dragon yawned and declared, “I’ve played these games enough. I am satisfied to watch you play with Aithusa, however, I see that he has already had his fill of alcohol today, so he can have warm milk.” And so the games began.

Arthur stood in the middle of the tavern and announced, “Citizens of Camelot, it has been more than twenty years since we celebrated the Yule season with dragons, but now that I am king, it is time to revive our respect of these magnificent beasts. In their honor, we will now start the Dragon Drinking Games. There are only two rules: don’t drink more than you can hold, and everyone wins.”

The tavern bustled with business as people bought drinks and drank and ordered food and lined up to play drinking games with Aithusa and the maidens. Big, short, stout, lean, young, old, they all wanted to play and the games were going quite well. A couple of hours into the games, Gwaine raised a pitcher and started singing. A man, known around town as The Nutcracker, stood and said loudly, “Hey, the king didn’t say anything about singing.” Everyone expected a brawl as Gwaine, full of drink and brimming with friendliness, walked over to the man. The knight attempted to put an arm around the other man’s shoulder, but ended up with his hand barely covering the bulky expanse. “Now then, there’s no need to interrupt. You can join in if you like.” The big man’s eyes widened and teared up. He said hoarsely, “Really?” “Yes.” Gwaine hopped up on a table and the two of them started singing “[The Green Dragon](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RSh_mhN3Ts&feature=related)”*.

  
At this raucousness, Arthur looked at Merlin and made eyes towards the door while covering his ears. Merlin looked to Kilgharrah who was still keeping a careful eye on Aithusa and nodded his assent. The two men, fingers entwined, slipped out the side door, completely unnoticed in all the revelry.

  
*the tavern song from the deleted scene of Peter Jackson’s film adaptation of “Return of the King”.

Lyrics:  
You can search far and wide,  
You can drink the whole town dry,  
But you’ll never find a drink so brown,  
But you’ll never find a drink so brown,  
As the one we drink in our home town,  
As the one we drink in our home town.  
You can drink your fancy ales,  
You can drink ‘em by the flagon,  
But the only brew for the brave and true...  
Comes from the Green Dragon!


End file.
